Theater

GOTR spoke with Brian Golden, the artistic director of Theatre Seven and director of its currently running production of 'In the Heart of America' by playwright Naomi Wallace.

Celebrated playwright and television writer, Mart Crowley survives to tell his artistic struggle leading up to the making of his best known work, The Boys in the Band, produced for the stage by Richard Barr (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf) and directed by Robert Moore. The opening nights of the groundbreaking 1967 play at the Playwrights Unit was attended by Jackie Kennedy, Barbara Walters, and Marlena Dietrich and other major public figures drawn by the brave new Off-Broadway production about how a group of gay men react to an uninvited guest at a birthday party. It is credited with being the first play to show gay men "as they are," which ironically become dated a few years after the Stonewall riots. Director Crayton Robey's behind the scenes story, Making the Boys, (now on DVD from First Run Features) is a continuation of the 1970 film and stage-play featuring exclusive interviews with the talent who brought the play and film to the screen.

The book Music on Film: Grease is an homage to everything Grease: The original 1971 play, the 1978 movie, the sequel Grease 2, the TV documentary Behind the Music, the 1994 and 2007 New York revivals, more TV specials, the 2010 sing-along version of the original movie, the promotional John Travolta posters given away with purchase of Helene Curtis shampoo, Grease jeans, Grease jackets, Grease Firestone tires, and Pepsi’s Grease “lucky caps”.

You would have a hard time missing Ike Holter in a crowd. Blazing down streets on his roller blades, gliding through crowds with his carefree attitude, this 26-year-old Chicago playwright is always on the move. Occasionally I see him at parties, with his addictive sense of humor calling out to you “Holl-ler” as he glides up with a smile. It is not unusual for Ike to attend numerous events on the North side all in one night, skating from place to place with his backpack in tow. He sat down with me, a rare occasion for this man, on an unusually cool August night to share some red wine and answer some questions about his life, career and his upcoming Steppenwolf Garage series production Hit the Wall.